Date of Observation: 01/08/2023
Name: Dylan Craaybeek
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Yule Creek
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Recent avalanche above Yule Creek, likely from 1/6 storm. See photo
Photos:
5874
Date of Observation: 01/09/2023
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Red Lady Bowl
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Red Lady Glades-loose dry (yesterday?)
Redwell-big slab (48-72 hours?)
Loose dry on Baldy (<24 hours).
Weather: Few clouds with calm to light winds BTL. Light winds NTL and ATL with moderate gusts with snow transport. Observed NW winds blowing snow on Whetstone. BTL-hot temperatures, almost t-shirt.
Snowpack: Didn’t venture off the skin track except in one spot BTL with no collapsing and cracking. Snow surface warmed up. The Bowl has a crust on top and transitional snow in the bottom of the bowl. Steeper snow is warming quickly. Saw roller on road cuts above the roads.
Photos:
5873
Date of Observation: 01/08/2023
Name: Zach Guy and Zach Kinler
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Snowmobiling Double Top area to 11,700′ on various aspects.
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large persistent slab off of Peak 13550 (Castlelabra?) at the head of Twin Lakes Basin appears as if it ran today triggered by solar warming or a small sluff, on a south aspect above treeline. Numerous small point releases also ran off of Star Peak on sunny aspects. Got good looks at dozens of avalanches that ran during the 12/31 to 1/4 cycles (I’ll document those later in separate obs), and also observed a handful of fresher-looking crowns that probably ran during the 1/6 storm, details and photos below.
Weather: Few clouds, clear skies, inverted temps, some drifting observed off of the alpine this morning. Light winds where we traveled.
Snowpack: Snowpack is still reactive here. We triggered numerous collapses and shooting cracks near and below treeline on various aspects, on roughly 25% of the open, untracked slopes that we crossed. That’s an improvement from a week ago when it was more like 90% during the storm. The near treeline collapses were more common transitioning from thick to thin areas. Below treeline seemed a bit more random, perhaps more common on sunnier slopes that have a thin crust amplifying the hardness difference between the slab and faceted weak layer. One stability test on an ENE aspect below treeline produced non-propagating fracture on the mid-December dryspell layer (~1.5-2mm fist hard facets). At this location, the depth hoar layer was discontinuous along the ground, but 3-4 mm and fist hard. New surface hoar was developing in valley bottoms; I didn’t see it higher in the terrain.
Photos:
5872
Date of Observation: 01/07/2023
Name: Ben Pritchett
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Baxter Basin
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A large natural avalanche that ran January 6, 2023 in the Ruby Range. See photo.
Photos:
5871
The weekly summary is here. A series of storms since December 27 delivered several feet of snow to the valley, overloading the snowpack and initiating widespread avalanching. The week finished with a clear day that provided excellent views of the many impressive avalanches that ran during the cycle.
Weekly Summary December 30-January 5-compressed
Date of Observation: 01/08/2023
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Near Judd Falls TH
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: This slide ran after sunset last night and before 11 this morning, probably during the night. The fracture ran to ground on a wind loaded starting area after a day in which it reached 29F and was sunny. Both branches of the run-out reached the river but did not cross it.
Photos:
5870
Date of Observation: 01/08/2023
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Coney’s area
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: One west facing that may have been remote from snowmobile, estimated 24-48 hours old. One west facing that may have been remote from snowmobile
Snowpack: 8 to 12 inches of new snow. We put new skin track in and had no cracking and no collapsing on and off skin track. Stomped convex corner and had nothing. Pole probes above gully where skin track lies above gully did not reveal weak facets layer. Did not penetrate weak facets on the ridge.
Photos:
5868
Date of Observation: 01/07/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Viewed from Scarp Ridge
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: A handful of previously undocumented large persistent slab avalanches that appeared to fail during the 1/3-1/4 cycle. Also evidence of large avalanches from earlier in the holiday cycle (12/31-ish) on numerous other alpine slopes, especially SE aspects above treeline.
Weather:
Snowpack:
Photos:
5867
Date of Observation: 01/07/2023
Name: Zach Guy
Zone: Northwest Mountains
Route Description: Irwin Tenure
Observed avalanche activity: Yes
Avalanches: Explosives triggered a pair of large avalanches in Upper Upper Westwall. Most notably, a single 3# hand charge on a thin spot in the slab produced a crown 115cm x 50m running full track with trees up to 8″ diameter in the debris pile.
A handful of wind slabs ran yesterday or last night up to D1.5 in size. Numerous very small loose dry avalanches ran today from solar warming.
Weather: Few to scattered clouds through the day, light winds with no snow transport.
Snowpack: 36 hour storm totals are 20″ with 1.3″ SWE. Got one large collapse on a low-angle southerly slope where the snowpack is thinner because of wind erosion.
Photos:
5866
Date of Observation: 01/07/2023
Name: billy barr
Zone: Southeast Mountains
Route Description: Gothic
Observed avalanche activity: No
Weather: Moderate snowfall through midmorning Friday, then light through the day with heavy periods, though a light density snow. A pause near sunset until moderate snow towards midnight for 3 hours. Clearing near sunrise so 24 hour snow total was 11½” with 0.81″ of water. Snowpack reached 54½” deep. Temperature is dropping as it clears after a high of 26F and current 7F. No wind (always a nice event)
5864
